Chris, Susie and Joe only stopped running when their legs and lungs couldn’t carry them a step further. By this time, they were a long way from the battle, deep within the forest and concealed by a dense overhead canopy - a comforting roof to seal out the Zentor. They stopped by a stream, each panting hard to regain their breath. The stream flowed into a deep, moss-laden pool. Chris took off his shoes and waded in up to his knees and splashed some water on to his face, trying to wash away acrid taste of smoke and battle.
“What do you think you were doing?”
Chris turned to see Joe, red faced, panting heavily and bent over nearly double, with his hands on his knees. His whole body bathed in sweat.
“Offering yourself for target practice? You almost got us killed.”
Chris opened his mouth but no words came out. Joe waded into the water and pushed Chris backwards. “You almost got me killed!”
“Don’t push. I’m sorry, okay.” Chris returned his glare.
“Well, sorry doesn’t cut it. Next time I mightn’t be around to bail you out.” He went to push Chris again, but Chris grabbed his arm and steered it away.
“Stop it, both of you!” Susie shouted. “I’m sure Chris didn’t just deliberately stand there.”
“I had a vision,” Chris said, knowing how lame he sounded. “I saw something and I couldn’t move.”
“You couldn’t move enough to dodge a crystal weapon blast?” Joe spat.
“Well, you didn’t see what I saw.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Those flying creatures come from another dimension,” Chris said. “And what I saw was all the towns and villages they’ve destroyed. The Zentors are Zelnoff’s favourite enforcers. They kill anything on his command. And they want us. They’ve been sent here to kill us. You know…us…the Mytar. Zelnoff sent all those Zentors just to kill us three.”
Joe blinked several times. “Well, I figured that,’ he said finally. “Are they still after us?”
“Of course they’re still after us,” Susie interjected. “We’re still alive, aren’t we?”
Joe glanced sideways at Susie. “Well at least you can say thanks. That’s three times in less than a day I’ve saved you.”
“Thanks,” Chris said, trying to sound sincere.
Joe drew a deep breath then looked down at his shoes, now completely immersed in water. “I don’t feel that well,” he said, sounding increasingly miserable.
Chris watched Joe stalk out of the water, sit down against a tree trunk and begin unlacing his shoes to drain out the water. He bore little resemblance to the Joe he had known even a week ago. His plump appearance was replaced by a much thinner version, with an ashen face and deep shadows clinging below each eye. Feeling all of Joe’s anger had now dissipated, Chris waded ashore and picked up his shoes before sitting down next to Joe. Only Susie seemed to maintain any enthusiasm as she walked around placing her hands on nearby tree trunks.
“We’re not alone,” she said after touching the trunks of the nearby trees. “I can sense Prower in the trees. I think they’ve been following us. Kaloc must have sent them.”
“Then Kaloc must know where we are,” Chris said.
“If he’s still alive,” Joe added miserably.
Susie continued to move from tree to tree, sometimes frowning, sometimes expressing surprise. Chris and Joe felt too tired to ask her what all her various facial expressions meant. When she finished her survey she sat down next to them, her blue eyes contrasting markedly with her dirty face and mat of tangled hair.
“There’s also been Zentors in the tree tops,” she said, after watching them both with a faintly disturbed look. “It seems they’ve been continually landing and taking off.”
Chris looked up at the dense canopy overhead. There was no sign of Prower or Zentor. The only movement was from a gentle breeze, which swayed the highest parts of the canopy, but, like Susie, Chris could feel them. They had been sent to destroy all the Mytar, and that’s what they were still trying to do.
“Well, we can’t go back, that’s obvious,” Joe said, now speaking softly, as though afraid of being overheard.
Chris pulled out the key. It was cold. They were out of range of the portal, but at least it wasn’t glowing. He thrust it back in his pocket in disgust.
In the same pocket his hand also touched the crystal that Cass had given him. He pulled this out and held it up to the light. There was a faint tinge of green. Chris leapt to his feet. “We’re near a Nethral tunnel.”
Joe looked up at him blankly. “Huh...”
“The crystal the Nethral gave me. It’s changed colour.”
“So?” Joe shrugged.
“Cass said that when it turns bright green it indicates that a Nethral tunnel is close by.”
“So we can escape into the underworld,” Susie concluded. “But you can’t be sure a Nethral tunnel will lead to the portal.”
“True,” Chris conceded. “But at least we’d be safe.”
“I think we should just keep running. Get as far away from here as possible,” Joe said, concentrating on ringing out his socks.
“Then we would end up totally lost,” Chris replied. “No one would ever find us again and we’ve got no food, not even any warm clothes.”
“And we’d freeze at night,” Susie agreed.
Joe folded his arms in front of him. “I don’t like holes.”
“Maybe we can wait here during the day and search for the Nethral entrance at night,” Susie suggested.
“That’s another thing I saw,” Chris said. “The Zentor can see just as well, night or day. Even if we could hide during the day, at night we would probably walk straight into them.”
In the end, with few real options, it was decided to try for the Nethral tunnel. Unfortunately, the crystal seemed to become greener only when they retraced their steps. This put everyone on edge, and several times they stopped and fell into a heated debate about whether to continue. But each time, with no better suggestions, they decided to resume their search. In particular, Joe became very nervous and several times Susie had to re-assure him that the noises they occasionally heard were only Prower following them.
After a while, Chris noticed that the overhead canopy was beginning to thin. Shafts of light penetrated to the ground more frequently, turning the forest floor into a mosaic of light and dark. He continued to urge the others on, promising the entrance was close, and periodically showing them the crystal for encouragement.
Further on, the canopy disappeared completely. Directly ahead they faced a solid wall of rock, which towered high above the forest. At intervals along the base of this rock face were a series of what looked like small caves, caused by the wind. Already knowing the Nethral preference for concealing their entrances at the back of caves, Chris felt sure he only had to find the right one. They stopped behind some bushes next to the clearing, hotly debating what to do next.
“We’ll be sitting ducks,” Joe said, scanning the distance between them and the caves. It only needs one Zentor to find us and the rest would be all over us in seconds.”
“Maybe we should wait for nightfall,” Susie suggested.
“I told you they can see just as well at night,” Chris argued. “Trying to cross in the dark would be more dangerous. We couldn’t see anything, but the Zentors could see us perfectly.”
“Are you sure they see that well at night?” Susie asked.
“When I looked into that Zentor’s mind I saw that they attacked mainly at night while their intended victims were asleep. That massacre at night by the lake was done by the Zentors. Attacking in the middle of the night is just what they do.”
Chris slung is weapon over his shoulder. “I’m going. The longer we stay here the more chance there is that a passing Zentor will spot us. If I find something, I will signal and you can come across.”
With neither Joe nor Susie raising any further objections, Chris started creeping toward the caves. The first part was e
asy. A series of small trees and bushes provided cover. He crept into the last bush and peered out. Ahead was a clearing the size of a football pitch with little more than knee-high grass for concealment. This was the first time Chris could see a large portion of the sky, and he was dismayed to find the black shapes of Zentor still gliding high over the forest. Holding the crystal in front of him, he crept on his hands and knees across the grass, periodically looking up for signs of Zentor. Then he heard it, a hideous screech that sent shudders through his body and made his skin creep. He rolled on to his side and unslung his weapon. A Zentor, circling high above, had seen him. It threw back its head and spewed out its repulsive call. As he watched, other Zentor appeared, and an answering chorus of shrieks quickly filled the air. The first Zentor folded its wings and looped into a dive, but as it reached tree-height a beam of blue light cut through one of the wings, sending it spinning into the ground a short distance away. Joe and Susie came running toward him. He climbed to his feet and together they sprinted for the nearest cave.
When they reached the cave, Chris began wildly pushing and flinging all the boulders and rocks around, but there was no sign of the entrance. Several Zentor were now circling over the spot where the first Zentor had fallen. Chris, finding nothing, ran out of the cave and along the rock ledge to the next cave. The Zentor immediately spotted the movement and began gliding down toward them. They were met with several blasts of light from Joe, which sent another Zentor ploughing into the ground. Chris reached the second cave. It was even shallower than the first. The crystal had also turned a slightly duller green. Now in a mad panic, he ran back past Joe, who was firing at the rapidly increasing numbers of Zentor. He reached a third cave, closely followed by Joe and Susie, just as several bolts of light exploded on the walls behind them. This one was much deeper. They ran to the back and Chris and Susie started pulling away the rocks, while Joe stood guard at the entrance. The crystal was now bright green. They dragged, clawed and dug savagely at the piles of rocks. Like Susie, Chris could feel the presence of the approaching Zentor, and he was almost manic with fear.
Several Zentor landed at the entrance of the cave and were greeted with blasts from Joe. Still more arrived, their sheer numbers forcing Joe to retreat further into the cave. Chris knew Joe would die if he couldn’t find the entrance. Susie abruptly stopped digging and looked across at Chris. He thought she had found the entrance, but instead she whispered, almost to herself. “Prower.”
Chris paused. There was the unmistakable sound of the Prower.
The Zentor, now well advanced in to the cave, had stopped their assault on Joe and their shrieking. At the moment they turned around, the Prower arrived. A wall of fur and gnashing teeth advanced on them, tearing into their numbers and ripping their bodies to shreds. In less than a minute, all the Zentor at the cave entrance were dead.
The Prower ran straight past Joe and Chris and right up to Susie howling and whimpering.
“They say we don’t have much time,” Susie said. “The Zentor are regrouping. They won’t be able to defend us a second time.”
All round the cave Prower began sniffing and scraping the ground with their claws. Soon one of the Prower started growling excitedly and digging.
They both ran over. The Prower was scratching at the base of a large flat rock. Just the type of rock the Nethral would use, Chris thought, as he slipped his hands under one side of it. Heaving with all his strength, he shifted the rock enough to show the opening of a hole. With Susie’s help they dragged the rock further away, revealing a tunnel barely large enough to fit through.
The cave entrance was now being peppered with light blasts. The Prower were retreating quickly. Joe jumped into the tunnel, followed by Susie, and finally Chris.
Like the Nethral entrances Chris had seen previously, this tunnel was small, forcing them to crawl on their stomachs. When they had descended only a short distance, Chris heard weapon fire behind him, followed by a rumble, then a puff of wind. The Zentor had fired into the tunnel and collapsed it when they realised they couldn’t follow. He had to fight back the feeling of being buried alive. But ahead was the Nethral and the underworld, he thought to himself - things can only improve from here.
Chapter 10: Under the Mountain